The retail industry contains many products that are utilized to push product towards the front of a shelf. The main elements of a pusher system include a front fences, connectors (push pins, adhesive tape, or magnets), dividers, pushers (track or trackless), and sometimes rear tracks. These items are used by stores in order to reduce employee's workload and enhancing the customers shopping experience by facing the products automatically. Employees will not be required to face product on the shelf and customers will not have to dig into the back of shelves to find product.
Pushers systems for retail merchandise that are available on the market allow for an either an infinite number of placements along the front rail axis or an incremental placement system of varying distances. This allows stores to customize the fit and function of the pusher system. Also, stores are able to squeeze more products into the available space. The problem with incremental systems is large gaps can appear in between products and dividers or offset pushers. This may cause the product being dispensed by the pusher system to bind along the pushing axis. Generally, conventional pusher systems attempt to deal with these issues with additional components that often require complex component arrangements and/or complicated assemblies.
It would therefore be desirable to have a pusher system for retail merchandise that addresses the aforementioned issues in a manner that does not entail the complexity and cost of conventional pusher systems. Embodiments of the present invention provide such a pusher system. These and other advantages of the invention, as well as additional inventive features, will be apparent from the description of the invention provided herein.